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If you’re Hawk GM Stan Bowman, now that you’ve got star forwards and franchise cornerstones Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane inked to long-term contracts, you’ve pretty much guaranteed that you’re going to have a competitive team for years.
Let’s make no mistake, the overall prospects of the Chicago Blackhawks are probably “good,” sarcasm intended.
For all the hullabaloo about star players going elsewhere over the summer, the Hawks remain the odds-on favorite in Las Vegas books to win the Stanley Cup in 2015.
That said, you’re also staring down the barrel of a big cap problem the next couple of years at least.
Even plugging two fringe NHL player/prospects in to the roster (Jeremy Morin and David Rundblad), the Hawks are $1.3 million over the cap for the upcoming season.
And your roster looks something like:
Bickell-Toews-Hossa
Sharp-Richards-Kane
Saad-Shaw-Versteeg
Morin-Kruger-Smith
Regin
Keith-Seabrook
Oduya-Hjalmarsson
Leddy-Rozsival
Rundblad
Crawford
Raanta
I say “something like,” because 1-2 of those names will likely be changed. Maybe Bowman gets some GM to take on Kris Versteeg and his 2.2 million deal. Even then, that would only maybe just get the Hawks barely by this season.
Next year, the Hawks already have $65 million committed to 14 players, leaving say $8-10 million (depending on where the cap is set next summer) to pay nine more players, some of whom deserve big raises. What that means is, depending on the size of those raises and the sheer dollar constraints you can count on right now, the Hawk roster will be swollen with journeymen willing to play for peanuts in Chicago and/or very young player/prospects.
So Bowman basically has two avenues forward (or some combination thereof).
1) Trade a higher-priced veteran or two.
The candidates most mentioned are Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya and Nick Leddy. In that order, the most cap relief is obtained. If you deal Sharp, you gain the most cap relief (nearly $6 million) but you lose a very, very good player. That said, the likely “replacement” for Sharp is an improving Brandon Saad—and ironically, Saad is playing for a new contract in 2015.
2) Play the kids
This is just going to be a fact of life going forward. I suspect the Hawks might get a veteran or two to come in and play for the league minimum or close to it. But there are likely very good reasons those guys will be looking for jobs at the league minimum as well. I would get used to hearing names like Rasmussen, Cumiskey, Carey, Nordstrom, McNeill, Dahlbeck, Mashinter or possibly Bass this coming season. The season after, you’ll likely hear more of Clendening, Teravainen, Danault, Johns, Ross or possibly van Riemsdyk, Fournier and Hartman.
Anyone who’s followed the NHL for more than a few years knows the hazards of rolling out a roster loaded with kids. And certainly no one knows it better than Hawk Coach Joel Quenneville. But if there’s a silver lining to this cloud, it’s that there are some solid candidates here to fight it out for these positions. The competition should produce better players. And based on the on-paper potential represented here, that could be enough to keep the Hawks highly competitive.
I’ll be back with trade rumors as I hear them.
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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